Is it a Zombie Apocalypse?

Who: Trevor and Trent
When: 9:30
Where: The streets of the nameless town

Trent had ever intention of getting his shop set up that morning, so he'd gotten up early. But plans changed when he tried to flick the light on in the bathroom. Yeah. No electricity. That's pretty fucked up. He managed to shower in the darkness, and get dressed without too much problem, but staying in the house with no electricity wasn't going to happen. So he set out, finding himself aimlessly walking down the streets. Houses were boarded up and that struck him as odd. More than odd. Fucking crazy. No electricity and boarded up houses? He didn't see anyone along the streets for a long time and he thought more than once that he was just dreaming and he'd wake up sooner or later. But he didn't wake up, he just continued to walk. That's when he saw another man walking down the street. Trent gave a bit of a wave. "Hey." he called out as he made his way towards the guy on the off chance that he knew what the fuck was going on.

Trevor's morning had been a little more on the screaming insanity side. He'd woken up before sunrise and his nightlight had been out. After fumbling for lights for a few minutes and failing, he'd spent the rest of the night sitting in a pile against his bed, crying hysterically. It was something he was trying hard to forget about now as he surveyed the town, stalking street after street to see just what was going on. Not that he was still upset, far from it. The whole thing reminded him of a level in a video game and he'd gotten himself a flashlight along the way. All he needed now was a radio and a handgun and he'd be set. He already had the big ass, black sunglasses after all, bring on the monsters.

He stopped when he heard someone calling out and looked around, spotting Trent coming his way. Not a monster, good thing since he didn't even have a baseball bat or one of those 'first level weapons' to replace it. "Hey," he said back, tilting his head. "Wasn't expecting another living being around here."

Trent let out a light laugh at that. "I know what you mean. I had the feeling I'm in a fucked up dream or something. Any clue as to what the fuck is going on?" he questioned, though he had the feeling that the other man knew just as little as he did. "Woke up and the electricity was fucked and it still hasn't come on and houses are boarded up like a hurricane's enroute or something."

Trevor looked around, shaking his head. "Guess it's on again," he said with no real concern if the experiment was about to continue. "Which one were you in?" He asked then, studying Trent for a moment. "Or are you one of the crazy volunteers?" Oh that had to bite, coming here to fix everything up only to get thrown into the vortex of fucked-up.

"Crazy volunteer." he replied. "Just got into town. Definitely wasn't expecting all this..." he glanced around with a little motion of his hand at the boarded up houses. "What's on again?" he asked as an after thought. "The electricity?" He wasn't sure if that was what the guy had meant, but the way the man had brought up the experiments immediately after he couldn't help but think he'd meant something entirely different.

"The experiments," Trevor replied flippantly. "It's obvious. Everything's boarded up, the police station is fucking empty." Empty of damn drugs too, bastards. "Everyone in charge is gone and it's just us now. It's gonna get worse. Things are going to start getting weird again. Can't find any cameras though." He grinned and patted Trent on the shoulder. "Don't worry about it, maybe they'll come get you out. Unless you guys signed some contract."

Trent blinked at the man. "Everyone in charge is gone? Just... vanished?" That bit of information was new. He'd not done too much exploring thus far and wasn't aware of the lack of authority and empty police station. "Which one were you in?" he questioned. Maybe this guy could tell him something about the experiments. He didn't know much at all. Not even about Carolyn's.

"I was in the tunnels," Trevor replied. "D. And yeah, been wandering around town for a while and there is nobody here. Fire station and police station, both empty. More than half the houses are boarded up, nobody's at the grocery store but it's open."

Tunnels? That didn't make much sense to him, but he'd not been in the experiments, so he didn't figure it would. He decided against pressing the guy for more details. "That's fucked up." he muttered, shaking his head and running his fingers through his hair. "So you really think they're starting the shit up again? Like this is all another experiment or something?" He knew experiments didn't turn out well, knew that people died... all to well. He wasn't about to be jumping for joy at the thought that he'd been sucked into yet another warped experiment.

"I'm positive," Trevor said and if that was the case, why couldn't they just let him stay in the god damn tunnels? He'd liked it there by the end, embracing the madness of it and making himself believe he was becoming a part of it. "So you did sign something, huh?" He smiled faintly. "Well, hate to break it to you but you're now as fucked as the rest of us."

"What happened in the first one?" he finally asked. Might as well get at least some insight if the guy was open to explaining. "Tunnels? I don't get it." Of course he didn't get it. Not in the slightest. Didn't get the thought of doing the experiments in the first place. What did they really accomplish aside from fucking up more lives than he could count?

"We were in an underground bunker," Trevor replied. "Supposed to figure out what that does to a person, living underground in bomb shelters and shit. But it all got fucking weird from there, a house in a huge hanger, fake lawn and all and from the basement there were all these tunnels. We had a guy in a wheelchair there, which was just warped considering the location and all the damn ladders. Then people started getting hurt and we were all on drugs or something. Don't know what happened in the others though, heard there was a house in one and isolation in another."

Isolation. That struck home. Carolyn was alone in hers. He knew that much. He wasn't sure entirely of all the details. Just that it was an experiment and that she'd snapped. Hung herself. She was alone... "Yeah..." he muttered. "My sister was in one of 'em." he let be known. "Sounds like some pretty fucked up people trying to play God to me."

"Oh so you did have a reason for coming here," Trevor said and wondered how he'd known. Trevor hadn't really told anyone where he was going, just that he was leaving York. "Pretty cool of you, not letting her stay here by herself."

Great. Time for the explaining part. "She's not here." he told him simply. He left it at that for the moment, trying to play it over in his head without just blurting 'nah, she's dead' or something like that. It just sounded fucked up coming out that way.

Trevor watched him for a moment and groaned inwardly. "She's dead, isn't she." He mumbled then. Fucking peachy. And then why bother coming here, if there was nothing he could do. He guessed he could understand it, sort of, but it still didn't make a whole lot of sense to him. And now her brother was going to be stuck in the experiment too.

He nodded. "Yeah." he replied. "She is." He shook his head, remembering the day he'd gotten word of it. "She killed herself." That too sounded pretty fucked up. She'd always been such a happy girl and to think she'd actually been so distraught with whatever they'd done to her that she'd offed herself... it just was fucked up.

"Well, fuck." Trevor muttered. "Sorry, man. Nobody came out right. Maybe she's better off." He shook his head much the same way Trent had before holding out his hand. "I'm Trevor. Might as well get to know the people you're gonna be stuck with."

He shook the man's hand. "Trent." he told him, though he wasn't about to admit they might be 'stuck'. He'd rather hold on to every ounce of doubt in hopes that he'd not fucked up and gotten himself roped into a situation that he couldn't get out of . Yup. Denial was a great thing.

Trevor smiled at him, a wry sort of smile and then he fished a small notepad out of the pocket of his jeans along with a pen. "Trent, morning, sister died," he scribbled, though he kept it from Trent, no need to let him see it. "You want to move? Standing here is just gonna make it colder," he said then. "I'll walk with you for a bit."

Trent watched as the man scribbled something down, but didn't pay much attention to it when the guy started talking. "Uh yeah, sure..." he said, starting to walk again. He wasn't even sure where he'd been walking in the first place. Really just taking in the fucked up shit around him. "Why bother boarding up the houses?" he muttered, mostly to himself. "I don't get it. I mean, unless they're trying to fuck with our heads."

"They're trying to fuck with our heads," Trevor said and he liked how much he sounded like a pro about the whole thing. A veteran of war, someone who knew his shit. The truth of course was he was just as much in the dark as everyone else and handling the experiment hadn't been all happy happy joy joy. "I'm going to find a sledge hammer or something and break into one of the houses, maybe more. See if they've hidden any shit in there."

"I feel like I'm in a fucked up video game or something. Now if I could only find the AK-47." He chuckled lightly and shook his head, glancing at the boarded up houses as they passed them. "So uh... why'd you sign up for the experiment in the first place?" he questioned. He wondered the same thing about his sister, but she wasn't exactly around for him to ask.

"Broke as fuck and wanted to get away," Trevor said with a shrug. "Thought it'd be easy money." He smiled wryly and eyed the houses as well. "If this is a fucked up video game or a movie, let's make sure we split up a lot and always run up stairs. Wouldn't wanna disappoint the audience."

He laughed. "At least we're not women. We'd have to strip down to our skivvies and prance around with no weapon at all."

"Let's see if we can get the female population here to do that and this experiment might not be so bad for some," Trevor snorted. "If you're into blue women anyway." The weather didn't exactly allow for skimpy.

He chuckled. "Well gives us an excuse to warm them up, yeah?" he said. "Got to have the sex scene in there too. No horror movie is complete without a little nudity."

"No thanks, the people who fuck get killed off first," Trevor replied and fished a pack of smoke from his jacket pocket. "Fag?" He asked, maybe using that particular slang on purpose.

He nodded. "Yeah, sure." he said, despite the slang. Trent was straight. Well, it was hard to really tell if you wanted to be with a guy if you'd never been with one, but Trent tended to drift towards the softer more busty sex.

Trevor lit up his own before handing the lighter over. "Wonder how many people are left," he said and thought of the people he knew already. He hoped Dale was still around, she was the closest he had to someone who understood. They'd both had a twisted little love affair with the tunnels after all. "Did you see anyone else?"

He shook his head. "Not today." he told him. "The only people I've seen were at that bullshit excuse for forcing people together yesterday at the town hall. That seemed pretty pointless to. You go to it?"

"Yeah," Trevor replied with an inward cringe. That hadn't gone well at all, at least not the cinema part. "Spent most of it nursing a hangover. It's fucking inhumane to drag someone out of their house at that hour."

"Yeah. I don't see the point in offering up an open bar to a bunch of people who have all the reasons to drink. Get everyone wasted... that really helps the situation." he sighed and shook his head. "Not that you getting drunk is bad or anything. I just think some people can't handle their liquor and to set it up in a place like this... fuckin' stupid."

"I disagree," Trevor replied with a grin. "I think I'd have killed someone if they didn't open a bar after the crap we've been through. Should have a fucking whore house too. Nine months of no sex and no booze is just fucked." Okay, the drugs had helped but not everyone got those and he was aware of that. He still missed booze.

"With the luck everyone seems to be havin', the whorehouse would be filled with diseased bitches." he muttered. "Then the std's would be runnin' rapid on top of everything else. That'd just be lovely wouldn't it? Guess we'll have to resort to gettin' our own tail, huh?"

Trevor snorted at that. "Something tells me sex is gonna be a rarity unless we get the hell out of here." At least me. Not like there's a whole slew of closet gay guys stalking the public bathrooms here. "All the girls are probably too traumatized to put out."

He shrugged. "Women are crazy." he told him. "You never know what their capable of. They might not be that traumatized just yet." Not that he'd really know if the girls would put out or not. Not that he was paying much attention to his urges regardless.

"Got that right," Trevor muttered. "They act all small and fragile and then they're so not." He nudged his sunglasses up higher on the bridge of his nose, then strolled up to one of the houses that were all boarded up, trying to peek in between the boards. "This is all so fucking weird."

Trent followed him up to the house, checking another window and trying to pry the wood away, of course having no luck. "Fuckin' hell." he muttered to himself. "We gotta be more resourceful." he said. "Think MacGyver."

"Keep your old American culture away from me," Trevor huffed, but clearly joking. "What would Taggart do?" He added, but just for a laugh. He stepped back and shrugged. "Like I said, gonna find some tools and get into some of those houses. Just to see if they've set something up." It was stupid, but he was excited by the thought.

"Okay Dane Cook." he teased. "Gonna do a B & E." He chuckled and shook his head, stepping away from the window. "I think I have a hammer at my house." he told him. "Forgot all about it, but I wanted to have something with me so I could hang up shit at the shop today."

"All the shops are deserted," Trevor said with a mischievous smirk. "We could get a freakin' chainsaw if we wanted, I bet you. Go at this with some real gusto."

"Sawing up the damn boards. I bet the fuckers would have put some electrical shit between the window and the boards themselves. We'd probably electrocute ourselves." He wouldn't put it past the fuckers who'd started all this shit. If they'd come up with fucked up experiments... and this might be one of them... then anything could happen.

"Remind me to wear rubber gloves and good boots," Trevor muttered, banging on the wood with his fist just once and hard. "It just wouldn't surprise me if they'd left people in the houses that are boarded up. That's all."

Trent hadn't even thought of that. "Fuck." he muttered. "Dude, you've been dealing with this shit so long, you might be on to something." he sighed. "Fuck."

Trevor just smirked at him and shrugged. "Yeah. We kept hearing people crying and talking in the tunnels but we never found them. Might've just been a recording but fuck knows. They left us down there for nine months to rot. A few people went missing. Maybe it was them." He took a deep drag of his cigarette and gestured down the street. "Wanna get something to eat? I'm famished."

Trent had almost forgotten about the cigarette in his hand. He balanced it between his lips and lit it then handed the guy his lighter back. A long drag later and he blew out the smoke. "I could eat." he agreed with a nod. "Hadn't really thought about it this morning. Too busy trying to figure out what the hell was going on."

"Yeah, join the club," Trevor muttered. With the whole crying and being a miserable wreck, he hadn't exactly been in the mindset of getting food. After that he'd just roamed town for a while and not really felt hungry until now. "Too bad everywhere is going to be fucking cold. Maybe we can find a generator or something."

"Or we'll have to huddle together to keep in our body heat." he chuckled. "Snag blankets and bundle up in the corner." He shook his head and flicked away the ash at the end of the cigarette. "Fuckin' ridiculous."

"I can handle the cold," Trevor replied. "But I'd rather not have to. We need to try and figure out how to get the electricity running too because fucking hell, I'm not spending any more time in the fucking dark."

Trent supposed that came from having been trapped in a tunnel for god knows how long. Being in the darkness and then being out and getting shoved back into it again. "Yeah... and how are we gonna do that?" he questioned. "Where do we even start?"

"Fucked if I know," Trevor grumbled. "I don't know shit about electrics. Was kinda hoping you did." He smiled wryly and started down the street again. "What do you do anyway?"

Well, this was definitely going to get a rise. Just like always. "I know a little, not a lot though. I'm a hair dresser."

"Huh," Trevor said and looked at him, up and down though the shades didn't really show that part. "Sorry about the fag comment then, I guess. Didn't seem to rile you though."

"I'm not gay." he said, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. "Just like to cut hair is all." He was used to people thinking that he was. "It's not a problem, seriously. I've heard worse."

"A straight hairdresser," Trevor chuckled. "Well, there's a first." He grinned at Trent though as usual it was hard to tell his real expression when his eyes remained hidden.

"Do I really look all that gay?" he questioned, honestly wondering. "I mean hair dresser might scream homosexuality, but do I look like I'm gay? Maybe I need to scruff up some more." he chuckled and rubbed the stubble on his chin.

"Yeah, you look flaming," Trevor replied dryly. "First thing I thought when I saw you was, oh holy fuck it's one of them homosexuals."

Trent burst out laughing and it took a long time for him to finally calm down enough to speak. "Fuck..." he breathed. "That's fuckin' hilarious. Are you tryin' to kill me?"

Trevor just grinned back at him and shook his head. "Come on, you freak," he chuckled and led the way into the diner. Just as he thought, empty and cold. Joy.

"Well... this looks promising." Trent muttered. There was no one in the diner. It was open, but empty. And the cold was becoming more apparent as he pulled his jacket tighter around him, folding his arms across his chest.

"And we can't cook anything," Trevor grumbled and headed in back to see if they had any sandwiches or something. "Damn we need the electricity," he grumbled. "I'm not in the mood to live off canned food this winter."

"Well, fuck." he said, shaking his head and plopping down at one of the tables. "Everyone in the whole damn town couldn't have just disappeared." he muttered. "I mean, there's no reason to have me and you being the only people here, is there?"

"Wanna start banging on doors?" Trevor asked and brought out a couple of sandwiches, tossing one at Trent without really caring what was on it. The cold made him want some coffee and there was none to be had which just sucked.

Trent took the sandwich, not caring himself what was on it and shrugged. "I dunno. If people are freaked out I'm not about to bang on their doors and get stabbed with a kitchen knife."

"Exactly," Trevor said simply and sat down next to him, wolfing down his sandwich. He had half a mind to say fuck it and head to the bar but 10am in the morning was a bit too much, even for him. "Which group was your sister in? Do you know?" He asked, wondering idly if it had been Leigh, the girl who killed (or didn't kill) Remy.

"C." he said, taking a bite of his sandwich. "I don't know if that tells you anything or not. I don't know what really happened in the experiment. Just that it took about a year for them to even tell us that she killed herself. Apparently she did it at the beginning of the whole thing... The only thing I know is that she was by herself."

Not Leigh then, Trevor had to say that was a relief. "I'm surprised you got told at all," he said and finally took off his shades since it wasn't overly bright in there. He put them down on the counter and rubbed his eyes. "No idea which one C was, but sounds like maybe the isolation thing if she was alone... Makes sense."

"I just can't believe they didn't tell us when it happened. That's pretty fucked up to keep her death a secret that long. We thought she'd been kidnapped or murdered or something. A whole fucking year thinking she'd be able to come home sooner or later and then boom. A fucking letter saying that she'd been dead this whole time."

"You didn't even know she was leaving?" Trevor asked, giving him a curious look. "Well, fuck. I told people I'd be gone for a year. But guess she didn't bother. Or maybe she thought she could still contact you."

"I don't know what she was thinking. I just don't see why she would have even gotten involved in something like this. We were really close and then she just fuckin' disappeared." he sighed. "It was like she vanished off the face of the earth without a single word or letter or anything."

"People are unpredictable," Trevor said and shrugged. "Even the boring and predictable people you know sometimes do crazy shit you couldn't have seen coming." His first thought was of course that she'd been doing drugs. That was one thing that tended to change things around pretty fast.

"Guess so. Still fuckin' blows. She should have come to me before she got involved in this bullshit." he muttered. He knew that she probably didn't come to him because she knew he would freak out on her. She knew he'd tell her that she was completely out of her mind for doing some random experiment.

"What would you have done?" Trevor asked. "Stopped her? Gone with her?" He knew very well the former wouldn't have worked, or most likely not. Going with her, Trent would be as fucked up as the rest of them if he was still alive.

"I would have told her that she was fuckin' crazy to try some shit like that. Even if I didn't know how it'd turn out. If she needed money... I woulda figured something out. She didn't have to do that bullshit. She didn't have to, but she did."

"Maybe she had other reasons," Trevor said and hell, he was not the person to talk to about this. He'd never lost anyone, not like that. Watching friends become total assholes wasn't comparable in any way.

"I wish I knew what they were." he muttered. "Let's talk about something else though because it's bad enough I have no electricity and can't even find a chick to screw in this town." he chuckled. "If it's a movie I'm going to die anyways. Scruffy white guys are always the first to go. Might as well get some tail while I'm goin' out right?"

"Maybe if we rescue some helpless bird from the boarded up houses you'll get some," Trevor chuckled. "Or if we get the electricity up, they'll throw themselves at us with undying gratitude." Yeah. Right.

Trent laughed and shook his head. "Maybe. We'll just have to see I guess. Too bad there's no damn electricity. It's freezing balls and I want something hot. Mother fucker."

"Yeah, fuck this shit. Where would they keep the whole..." Trevor trailed off. "Yeah I know shit all about electricity. Maybe we can find some generators in the hard ware store. Want to check it out? At least maybe something like a primus to heat up some water or something."

"Sounds like a plan. Maybe they have something battery operated that could at least be sufficient enough to keep us fucking warm." he said. "Like camping gear or something, yeah. Battery operated shit or like one of those fuckin' lamp things that you just light."

"I'm just thinking hardware store is the place where the party's at," Trevor agreed and got up, huddling his shoulders for a moment and tightening collar a bit. Because even a York boy was getting weary of the cold.

Trent got up too, running his fingers through his hair. "Maybe get a couple of flashlights too." he said. "I'm not a big fan of the pitch black shit either."

Trevor had just slid on his sunglasses when Trent said that and he was glad, certain the flinch would have been far more visible otherwise. "Yeah me neither," he muttered, understatement of the year right there.

They headed towards the door and back out onto the street. "Okay, where is the hardware store?" he questioned. "I don't think I've walked around enough yet to be able to find it."

"It's close to the grocery store," Trevor replied and again led the way. "Fucked if I remember the address but I think I know roughly where it's at." So they might take a little detour in finding it but it wasn't like they had anything better to do.

"Lead the way then." he said, following the guy down the street. "So are we going to like split up after this or hideout in one of our houses. If I'm going to die, I'd prefer to not be alone when it happens."

"But we have to split up," Trevor pointed out. "And one of us totally has to get lost in the woods and fall over a lot." He smirked and lit up another cigarette, offering one to Trent. Nothing like a good fag after eating.

Trent took the cigarette and lit it up, giving the guy his lighter back. "Well lets be the smart ones that don't split up. I'm not goin' into the woods and I'm pretty sure you're smart enough to know better than get separated from me now. If you do one of us will find the other one dead for sure."

"And won't that be exciting?" Trevor joked, smiling wryly again. "Alright, we'll stick together like..." There was a saying, wasn't there? "Like things that stick together," he concluded because, oh whatever and who cared. "That way we can watch each other die horribly."

He chuckled. "Like things that stick together." he nodded. "At least we won't wonder how the other one died. My bet is that you're going to be the one that dies first." He teased.

"Yeah? Alright," Trevor replied. "No prolonged agony and terror. I can live with that." He snorted. "Or die with that..."

"We're fucked either way." he muttered as the moved down the street, taking a hit of his cigarette and blowing out the smoke. "I'm real fucking smart, getting caught up in all of this shit. I'm the dumb-ass here."

"Psh, you and me both," Trevor told him. "You thought you were doing something good at least, I was just in it for the money."

"Money does a lot of crazy things to people, but I mean... thinking all you have to do is sit around and do some random experiment for a year and get paid... I can't really blame you. Especially going into it blind. I mean, if they'd of told you what you'd be doing, I can almost guarantee you wouldn't be here having this conversation with me right now."

"You think?" Trevor laughed. "I might be, actually. I'm not known for my fucking wits. Now all I wanna know is, is it over when the year is up? Or are we stuck here in some eterna-limbo."

He shrugged. "I wish I could tell ya that, man. You're guess is as good as mine. Maybe they just wanted to get some of us dumb-ass volunteers to replace whoever they killed off. You might be right. They might be starting the shit all over again. But why let everyone out?" he questioned. "Why a town. I mean okay, there was isolation or something, then a house, you said and then tunnels. All pretty small places or whatever but a whole fuckin' town?"

"They got bored with the current set-up? Who the fuck knows," Trevor said and shrugged a bit helplessly. "Fun and games to build up hope and dash it within a few days. Dump interns and participants all in the same spot, see if anyone kills anyone else before they get the game started again."

"Seems like they're making it a free for all. Throwing everyone together, bringing in new people and then fucking with their heads." he sighed and shook his head, taking another drag and flicking away the ashes. "Motherfucker."

"Unless we're in quarantine," Trevor said and smirked. "Watch out for zombies, man." He was joking, and yet he couldn't help but look around for anyone shambling in their direction.

"Dude. So not even cool. I'm not about to be yanked into a god damn 'Resident Evil' type world. Aim for their heads if you see a fucking zombie. And seriously... don't miss like those dumb asses tend to do. We gotta outsmart the system."

"Easier said than done when I've never even held a gun," Trevor grumbled. "We're not all gun-toting idiots like you lot." Which kind of sucked if there was a zombie outbreak.

He shook his head. "Grab a shovel then and sever their heads. Stab 'em right in the neck." he said, mimicking the motion of a shovel in hand and the stabbing action. "If it comes to that. Fuckin' zombies. That'd be ridiculously uncool."

"And if you can't beat'em, join'em," Trevor said in a mock American accent, a somewhat lame one at that. "It'd make living here easier, I bet."

"Yeah. Become a zombie to avoid the dumb experiments. You're right, man. You aren't known for your wits." he teased.

"Shut the fuck up," Trevor groaned. "It was a fucking joke." He tossed his cigarette aside and buried his hands in his pockets, glaring around the street. "Where the fuck is everyone..."

"Probably holed up in their houses hoping that the lights just come back on. Or maybe they're all out looking for the source of the power. I mean we're in the middle of nowhere, there has to be something powering the whole city, don't you think?" He took another drag of his cigarette then tossed it to the ground, stamping out the ember and continuing on his walk.

"Guess we could check the main houses and stuff," Trevor suggested. "After we check the hardware store. Have you seen anything that looks like a good place to hide a huge power source?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. Hadn't really thought about it til now. I mean maybe it's just a switch that they switched off to see if anyone of us has the brains to fix it ya know?"

"Yeah, but first we have to have the brains to find it," Trevor sighed. "If I was a big electrical switch, where would I be?" He added, sarcastically.

"You'd be where all the wires are leading." he said, glancing over at the man. "We have to follow the electrical poles. The wires have to go somewhere, they'd go to wherever the power is coming from."

"Can you drive?" Trevor asked, because walking from one end of town to the other just to find out they had to go to the other end again, well that'd take time and too much time meant he'd end up in the damn dark again. "We can see if there are any cars around for the taking."

He nodded. "Yeah, I can drive." he said. "Can't you?" Seemed like an odd question unless the guy couldn't drive himself.

"Not really," Trevor muttered, as in no. "Let's check this out, okay? Save us some minutes and warm up a little."

'Not really'. Yeah okay. That totally meant no. How do you go an entire life and not know how to drive? He didn't bother questioning just nodded. "Sure thing." he said. "Lets go then."

"Eh," Trevor muttered, not keen on explaining that he'd never afforded or bothered with the whole car thing, preferring the trains and rides with friends. "Now here's to hoping we can find one with keys, unless you know how to hotwire one too."

"Not a hotwiring person, unfortunately. We'll just have to figure out something." he told the other man. "Hardware store first or the search for the electrical issue?" he questioned.

"Car first, before my dick falls off," Trevor muttered and started up to one of the boarded up houses that had a garage. No guarantee of course but he wanted to get inside and get warm. If those fucking wrecks of cars even had a heating system.

"Gotta keep your dick, dude. Can't fuck with frostbite." he laughed. He followed Trevor up to the house. "Do you even think they've got heat?" he questioned, voicing the mans thoughts. "The ones I saw around yesterday seemed pretty damn old."

"I'm going to go fucking insane," Trevor said with a hint of a whine in his voice. And already he'd forgotten the man's name so he fished his notepad out of his pocket and peeked. Trent. Right. "Okay, you make the decisions, my brain is fried."

Trent rubbed his temple. "Fuck... How bout we hit the hardware store and look for some form of portable heating apparatus. Then we can figure out the car shit. Even if we found where the electricity starts... doesn't mean we can fix it. We have to cover our bases before we spend the day trying and failing at electrical restoration."

"Heat, yes," Trevor muttered, calming down a little. "And we're close so, let's keep going." He was right, thankfully, and it only took a few minutes before they arrived at the hard ware store.

Just like the diner, the hardware store was empty. It was like being in ghost town. It was open... but empty. Trent made his way into the building and glanced around looking for any signs of possible camping equipment. Hardware stores were bound to carry such things, right? "Okay... we're going to need batteries and shit if we can find something portable."

"Plenty of those around," Trevor replied and strolled down the aisle. It wasn't a very big store but they had some stuff like a barbecue, which would come in handy if they couldn't find anything else. At least it gave off warmth.

"Well, if we get really cold, we could always set one of the boarded up houses on fire." he said, pointing to a can of lighter fluid sitting on the shelf. "Matches and some of that shit and we'd be plenty warm."

Trevor grinned at that remark and could all too easily picture it. "Let's just make sure nobody's in there first," he muttered and started looking through the various equipment there.

"This could help us do that." he said, pulling a crowbar from another shelf and holding it up for the man to see. "At least it'd get those fucking boards off so we could look in and junk." He glanced over the shelves as he continued to move down the aisle.

Trevor smirked as he spotted a huge-ass axe for a moment all too easily picturing going bonkers with it, but then he passed it by. He just hoped nobody else would go bonkers with it either... "Gas stove," he said and tapped the shelf with the equipment. "Can at least get some coffee."

"Hell yes." he said, a smile breaking across his face. "Better than nothing. Ya know... if we took the grill part off of one of those barbecue grills we could have a little miniature fire pit type thing. At least we'd stay warm."

"Sounds good to me," Trevor agreed and got himself a backpack. It looked cheap but it'd do. He shoved some flashlights and a whole lot of batteries in there, very much not planning on dealing with the dark again. "Where do you want to take this stuff?"

He shrugged. "My place... or yours if you're more comfortable that way." he said. "Up to you." He didn't really care where they went as long as he got some heat. It was freezing balls out here and it his fingers were starting to go numb.

"I hear all the houses look exactly the same so wherever's closer," Trevor said and gathered some more things in his backpack. "So where's your house?"

"Not too far. Elm street." he told him. "Yours?"

"Hidey ho, neighbour," Trevor said and cocked a brow at him. "So obviously I'm shit at getting to know the people who live the closest. Where on Elm street are you living?"

"On this end. Closest to the middle row." he told him. "Almost on the corner, not directly on the corner, like one over." he told him. "What about you?" he asked. "I just got started getting moved in and stuff a couple days ago so I wouldn't expect you'd have seen much of me. Too busy rearranging things."

"Ah okay, I'm way over in the ass part," Trevor replied. "So, your place it is. Do you have any food over there or do you want to stop by the market?" He asked then, shouldering the backpack and grabbing a barbecue grill.

"I have food." he told him. "Managed to get to that right off the bat. I'm sure we can scrounge up something." He snagged the crowbar, just in case and tucked it under his arm. "Anything else we need to grab?" he questioned.

"Nothing I remember," Trevor replied but that wasn't saying much since his memory was really crappy. "Got plenty of smokes, we have heat and if you have food I can't think of anything else."

"Sounds like we're set then, lets get the hell out of here." he said, heading towards the door again. Once they were on the street he lead the way to his house. "At least my nuts can thaw now." he muttered. "Fuckin' cold."

"Where are you from in the big US of A anyway?" Trevor asked as they strolled down the street. "I'm crap with your accents."

"Austin." he said. "Texas." He shrugged. "Got that whole 'howdy ya'll I'm a redneck' twang goin' unfortunately." he said. "Where abouts are you from?"

"York," Trevor replied. "That's United Kingdom for you, if you're not one of those there are no countries outside the USA blokes." He smirked and added a belated, "Cowboy."

Trent rolled his eyes. Cowboy was far from how he saw himself. "I think that's the first time anyone's ever called me 'cowboy'." he noted. "Too busy with 'fag' and 'fairy' and other shit like that. All in all I find it pretty funny because I end up with more women than most of the guys wasting their time on calling me a flamer."

"Well, fag to me is nicotine," Trevor said and smirked. "And sounds like they're too stupid to get laid or pretty bent themselves. And doesn't being Texan kinda automatically put you in the cowboy stereotype? You need a bigger belt buckle, that's for sure."

"Well, everything is bigger in Texas." he said with a smirk forming on his lips. "Don't need a belt buckle. And I supposed being a Texan does shove me into the bronco ropin', steer ridin' type." he rolled his eyes. It didn't take long for them to reach Trent's house and they headed inside. While the rooms were basically the same as everyone else's, Trent had rearranged all the furniture to suit himself.

"Shit, they weren't joking when they said it was all the same," Trevor muttered, putting the barbecue down and slipping off his backpack. Of course he had, by now, put a shitload of lame graffiti on his walls to keep himself from going crazy with the wholesome fifties feel of his house.

"Yeah. I couldn't stand the way they had the furniture and shit arranged though." he said as he made his way into the kitchen. He opened a window there to let in some light. "I have like stuff for sandwiches... I know the power is out, but I'm sure the fridge held a little cold in there, at least for a bit." He opened one of the cabinets, the contents arranged perfectly. Vegetable cans with vegetable cans, everything perfectly coded in his usual way.

Trevor followed him in there, looked around and smirked. "A little OCD?" He asked flippantly before gesturing back to the hallway. "Where do you want to put up this massive grill? Gotta be somewhere the smoke will get out..."

Trent laughed a little at the OCD comment. "Yeah, a bit." he said with a nod. "Just like my things in a certain way. It's a habit." he shrugged. He glanced around the kitchen then back to the other man. "I guess in here. There's the window and everything. Better in the kitchen I suppose."

"I'll try not to burn your house down," Trevor replied and headed back to the hallway, bringing in the barbecue. "Did you get a car, by the way?" He asked. "I didn't, don't even have a garage. Not that I'd need it, obviously."

"If I did, I sure as hell ain't seen it." he said, pulling down some bread and opening the fridge to grab sandwich meats, cheeses and mayo. "Guess it didn't really cross my mind knowin' that shit was so close and everything. Sure gettin' my excercise walkin' around and crap."

"Probably be nice to have one. If those cars can even handle a Russian winter," Trevor muttered. "But yeah, I'm used to walking a lot, I don't really give a toss. Except when the fucking electricity craps out on me and I need to go search town for a way to get it back."

"That's for fuckin' sure. Ridiculous bullshit if you ask me. If they want to fuck with a bunch of people or kill us off couldn't they just do it? God damn..." he sighed and went about making the sandwiches. "I think they just like watching us squirm. There are probably fuckin' cameras all over, treating us like labrats just to see what we'll do."

"Yeah, that's for sure," Trevor muttered, though at the back of his mind he couldn't help but wonder if this meant he'd get drugs again. That would be fucking sweet. He started putting up the grill, emptying the bags Trent had taken with him, coals and gasoline. He didn't have a lot of experience with real barbecues, but he and his friends had done this for a laugh a few times somewhere in someone's back yard, stoned or high, grilling random food and often to the point of ridiculous.

Trent finished up the sandwiches and left them sitting on the counter. "Here, I can do that." he told him. "Texan and all. Had a barbecue or two in my day." He walked over to the grill and took the bag of coals.

"Had a few myself," Trevor snorted, but he let Mister Cowboy deal with it and gobbled down a sandwich instead. "Stupid to be up this early," he said, taking off his sunglasses and putting them in his pocket.

"Not a mornin' person I'm guessin'." he said as he shifted the coals out of the bag and into the barbecue. Lighter fluid on the coals and grabbing some matches from the drawer and the grill was lit. "At least we'll be fuckin' warm." he muttered, putting his hands close to the fire that was now burning in the grill.

Trevor joined him and rubbed his hands together. "I'm still favoring your idea of setting a house on fire. I feel like I'll never be fucking warm again."

Trent chuckled. "Yeah, I know right. I've got some blankets and shit. Bundled up by the fire sounds pretty fuckin' good. Along with a good cup of coffee. Think you can figure out a way to heat up the water while I grab the blankets?"

"You bet," Trevor replied and fetched the backpack. The small gas stove didn't need much gas at all and he had some water heating in no time. "So do you have some way to mix this shit together without using a machine?" He asked.

"We're gonna do this the ghetto way." Trent said with a little laugh as he set the blankets down and grabbed a jar for the coffee, the coffee grounds and a filter. He taped the filter to the jar, scooped the coffee onto it and grabbed the heated water slowly pouring it through the filter. "This is the most MacGyver I've ever gotten." he said with a chuckle as he continued to slowly pour the water.

"You must feel pretty hardcore," Trevor chuckled, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around himself before sitting down. "Big fan of MacGyver, huh?"

He shook his head. "Never watched it to be honest. Just know the guy could do some crazy shit with random household objects to get out of a crappy spot. So... coffee." he smiled and tossed the coffee grounds into the trash and grabbed a couple of mugs out of the cabinet. "Sugar?" he questioned.

"Lots," Trevor replied and tightened the blanket around himself feeling a bit like a kid at Christmas when he got that hot mug in his hands. "Warm," he all but purred, holding it up to his lips though not drinking yet; just enjoying the steaming heat and the smell of the coffee.

Trent mimicked his Eskimo look, tugging the blanket around his body and plopping down on the floor with his mug. "Well at least I'm close to regaining feeling in my bones. Now if my dick would defrost we'd be good."

"Might help thaw it if there was something better to look at than my ugly mug," Trevor chuckled, sipping his coffee hesitantly. It was still too hot but he didn't care, hot was good right now.

He laughed at the comment and shook his head. "I'll just have to use my imagination then won't I?" he questioned. "If it gets colder than it is now, I might have to start pretending you're a chick. Desperate times call for desperate measures." He sipped at his own coffee, glad to have the hot liquid flowing down his throat.

Trevor nearly spat out the coffee, looking up at Trent with arched brows. "Right," he muttered. "Good luck with that. You'll need it."

"It was a joke, man. Just kiddin', seriously." The last thing he needed was to freak the guy out by making him think he was going to molest him or something.

"There's nothing girlie about me," Trevor corrected him. "So you'd need all the luck you could get. Or a fucking vivid imagination."

Trent raised a brow. That statement didn't come from a guy who was offended. "Yeah well. Just have to close my eyes and pretend then, yeah?"

"Yeah you would," Trevor said firmly. Mostly of the mind that he was not fucking girlie. So there. "That might not work either though."

Trent chuckled and shook his head. "Well lets just hope it don't come to that then." he said, sipping his coffee again. "I don't think my imagination is active enough to construct a random woman for me to pretend to screw."

Trevor gave him a lopsided grin, since he didn't push the issue. "Let's hope we can get some live ones then."

"Yes, let us pray to the gods of the horror movies that some random chick runs in here screaming, fleeing the zombies and seeking shelter from the apocalypse and totally willing to suck, fuck and lick until she dies."

"Sounds rational," Trevor chortled, shaking his head in amusement. "That's what always happens. Zombie holocausts drive women crazy randy."

"Shh. Let a guy dream, man. Let a guy dream." He chuckled and sipped a bit more of his coffee. The warm liquid making his insides feel a lot less like shutting down. He was slowly toasting up, and he could almost feel the blueish tint he was sure his body had taken on disappearing.

Dream all you want but not out loud, Trevor thought but smirked at Trent. He wasn't about to let on that the whole hot and horny women did very little for him if anything. Unless he did what Trent jokes about and closed his eyes. "Dream away," he muttered, shaking his head. "Little else to do."

He laughed and shook his head, reaching up and setting his coffee on the counter. "Yeah, well if there was a zombie apocalypse, I highly doubt I'd be able to screw at all. So the dream would be over rather quickly when the start bustin' in." he said.

"Sex is a great stress relief though," Trevor said and shrugged. "I figure you'll need a little bit of stress relief during an apocalypse."

"True. Stress relief is crucial. Maybe if more people got laid before the movies got really bad, they'd be less stressed and could think better and would be able to come up with better strategies for survival."

"Yeah, and it'd be a porno instead of a horror," Trevor said and rolled his eyes. "But I think it'll be a good idea for real life. You want to promote it?"

"Hell yeah. Trenton Hawthorne: making horror movies into pornos." he said with a laugh. "Could totally see it. Maybe I'll make that my new profession."

"Sorry man, been done," Trevor chuckled. "But I've no doubts you could do it better. The ones I've seen were pretty shitty."

He laughed. "Guess we'll just have to see what I can come up with. Right now I'm concentrating on defrosting. At least there's some fire now. Lots better than it was. Actually bordering on toasty."

"We'll have broads streaming in here for the warmth before long," Trevor warned him. "So you better at least start working on the setting of your movie. Maybe even find yourself a camera."

Again he laughed. "We'll just do a whole kitchen scene. Burning fire in the grill in the middle of the kitchen will just put that mood on." he said, shaking his head. "But chicks filing in for warmth would be awesome. Maybe they'll give off some body heat with cuddling."

Trevor almost suggested that hey, so did he. Almost. "A pile of warm bodies would be nice about now," he chuckled. "But at least it's getting warmer in here." Whatever else he had to say was postponed as their attention was caught by sounds outside. "What the hell," Trevor muttered. "Is that a guitar?"

Trent blinked as he listened. "What the fuck?" he said, shaking his head to make sure his brain hadn't fallen loose. "Who the hell would be playing a guitar in the midst of this shit?"

"We should check it out," Trevor muttered. "Maybe they can't speak and that's their way of telling where they're at or something..."

Trent knew they should both go, because the guy probably would like die or something knowing their luck, but the thought of going out in the freezing cold again really didn't sound too appealing. "If you want to check it out, you can." he told him. "I'd much rather sent in the warm. Just don't die if you're plannin' on leavin'. Take the crowbar with ya."

Trevor snorted and got up. "I'll be back, hopefully with girls for you," he muttered and left the blanket behind. "If I'm not back within the hour, board up your house and arm yourself." It was a joke. Mostly.

"Will do." he said with a nod. "Don't get yourself killed." he said, mostly joking as well. He just hoped that the joke wouldn't become a reality.